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Panda blood bank

China’s endangered pandas will have their own blood bank. Samples taken from 81 animals at one research centre will provide information about their blood types and DNA that should help future breeding programmes, the China Daily reported on 28 January. An estimated 1600 pandas live in the wild.

Protecting animal labs

The UK unveiled laws on Monday to stop animal-rights extremists. Anyone convicted of intimidating people working for firms that supply or trade with animal experimentation facilities could get up to five years in jail.

Phantom discs

The “missing” computer discs that led to a shutdown at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico never existed. After investigating the incident, the US Department of Energy lambasted the University of California, which runs the lab on its behalf, and is withholding nearly &dollar;6 million in fees.

Anthrax outbreak

Anthrax has killed 18 hippos at a Ugandan national park, prompting fears of an outbreak similar to one that killed nearly 200 hippos last year. Visitors to the Queen Elizabeth Park, which had to close during the earlier outbreak, are being warned not to touch hippo carcasses.

Not abstaining

Sex-education programmes that promote abstinence instead of contraception do not have any effect, according to a study by Buzz Pruitt of Texas A&M University, who surveyed 29 Texas schools. This year, the US government will spend &dollar;130 million promoting such programmes.

Up, up and away

An uncrewed scientific balloon has spent a record 41 days 22 hours aloft, beating the previous record by almost 10 days. It carried a NASA instrument searching for high-energy cosmic rays.

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